Wildlife species are extensively studied by researchers. Yet another aspect of the conservation research, conservationists, are less studied, although understanding of conservationists might promote conservation research. Sandbrook is a political ecologist who interested in the behaviour, e.g. diet and travel cost of conservationists. His paper found that conservationists have a more sceptical than supportive attitude to the adoption of market instruments in research (Sandbrook et al., 2013). Knight (2013) raised a theory of hope in conservation, stated that both self-empowered hope lead to success of conservation for individuals. And for the whole conservation mission, hope would be the young generation.
Conservation is based on science and fieldwork, and is often connected with exploration and adventure. In the developed world, it is a well-treated and reputed work and admired by the public. There are many great conservationist in the world, for example, George Schaller, Sir David Attenborough and Jane Goodall who starts their career when they are young. Yet there is a research gap in understanding the living status of conservationists in developing counties, such as China. And I briefly use two case studies, to identify the main differences of conservationists in China. The contents in this blog is exclusively coming from informal interview with them and followed-up discussions.
Conservation in China is less paid, but more importantly less reputed by society. Dr. Yang is a staff working in an International NGO China branch. He normally spent most of the year on his fieldwork in Sichuan on forest management. Ten years ago, he graduated from a forestry degree in University and spent six year in the Sichuan highland on a Endemic bird. "Those years are good time because I was young and the social peer pressure is less important. Today the old friends and classmates of mine earned good job in the city, owning cars and properties, got married and had children. Sometimes I feel some pressure." He added, "Yet this does not mean that I am not happy, I am satisfied with my job, I love the time I spent in the wild and I feel good about the impact of my job." Yang gets limited salary from this piece of work. Recently he also trades the local collected Chinese medicine plants with people in the cities, which might bring in some extra income for both him and local people.
But the similarity of doing conservation in both developing country and developed country is that, people who chose conservation-related job is trying to combine their hobbies together with their jobs. Dr. Liu work on a big cat research program in a Chinese local nature conservation agency. The income of this agency is relatively higher than its competitors, much higher than the average salary line in Beijing. Liu is from a top university in China, according to him his classmate in university time has already become the new middle-class in China after a few years' work in finance, government and academia. "It is all about passion." Said Dr. Liu, he is a nature lover and climbing expert, he was the team leader of a climbing team and has been to Africa and Antarctic for climbing. He spent eight months in the wild but not this year, as he suffers injury on his back from long time fieldwork on the highland. "It is normal for people in my field to suffer some physical problems, it is unavoidable." Last year he had his son and he decided to spend more time in Beijing. His wife sometimes feel not happy about his work, but is very supportive. She said:" It is pointless to talk about value or impact of his job. It is good enough for someone to find what he really wants to do."
These are stories of contemporary of young generation conservationists today in China. I include my thoughts into the content and listed a different image of conservationists in China. There are many downsides of this job, but everyone is satisfied as long as they love the job nature. But if the society does not appreciate this job enough and there is not enough support from the policy and market side to this field, how far can these young generation conservationists go? However, at least for today, they are a group of fun people, enjoying what they are doing and hoping to make a difference.
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